Method of making a silicon carbide rail for use in a semiconductor wafer carrier

ABSTRACT

A silicon carbide rail for use as a support in an apparatus for holding semiconductor wafers is made by forming a first series of parallel slots or grooves into the front side of a graphite plate usually without piercing the back side of the plate, converting the slotted graphite plate into a slotted silicon carbide plate, and forming a second series of parallel slots into the back side of the slotted silicon carbide plate such that each slot on the back side connects with a corresponding slot on the front side. The width of each back side slot is less than that of the corresponding front side slot, thereby forming rail teeth having a ledge running along their to top surfaces.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/165,542 filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office onOct. 2, 1998 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,400 issued Aug. 9, 2001.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

This invention relates generally to vertical carriers or boats forholding semiconductor wafers during heat processing and is particularlyconcerned with a vertical carrier designed to effectively support largesemiconductor wafers having nominal diameters equal to or greater thanabout 200 millimeters, preferably wafers having nominal diameters ofabout 300 millimeters or greater.

Semiconductor wafers, especially those made of silicon, may beconventionally processed by placing them horizontally into a holdingdevice or carrier at intervals in the vertical direction and exposingthe wafer's surfaces to high temperature gases in a furnace, usually toform an oxide film on these surfaces or to deposit certain atomstherein. To maximize the amount of surface area exposed to the heattreatment, the wafers are usually held in “boats” or carriers typicallycomprised of parallel vertical supports or rails having relatively shortslots evenly spaced along their length. The slots in one support arenormally aligned with slots in the other support so a wafer can bejointly received by a corresponding slot in each support. By placingwafers in appropriate slots on the supports, the boat can carry a stackof wafers separated from each other so that both sides of the wafer areexposed to the heat treatment.

In the past, conventional vertical boats and carriers have been designedto support wafers having nominal diameters of 200 millimeters or less.These size wafers are typically supported by slots on the vertical railsthat extend inward around the edge of the wafer only a very shortdistance, usually less than about 20 millimeters. Unfortunately, whensuch a design is utilized to support larger wafers, i.e., wafers havinga nominal diameter greater than about 200 millimeters, the wafers aredeflected by their own weight and tend to sag. As the temperature in thefurnace rises, this sagging or deformation results in crystaldislocation or “slip” and other stresses on the wafer. Although “slip”typically begins to occur at about 1200° C. for wafers having nominaldiameters of 200 millimeters, it probably occurs at a temperature of1000° C. or less for wafers having diameters of 300 millimeters orlarger. Crystal dislocations caused by stresses on the wafers result ina decrease in the number of chips that can be made on a wafer. Thisreduction in product yield increases with wafer size, and therefore theprocessing of larger wafers in conventional vertical boats has beengenerally avoided.

Various techniques have been suggested in an attempt to decrease thebending stress on wafers. One method suggested is to locate the rails orvertical supports of the boat or carrier more toward the front of thecarrier where the wafers are loaded. This, however, is difficult becauseof the need for an unobstructed wafer loading path. Another techniquefor decreasing bending stress on large wafers is taught in U.S. Pat. No.5,492,229, the disclosure of which patent is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety. This patent teaches the use of relativelylong support teeth, i.e., the support arms formed by long slits or slotson the support rail, with small contact pads located at or near the endof the teeth for supporting the wafers toward their center and not attheir edges. According to this patent, the contact pads or supportprojections are located such that the inner portion of each wafer issupported by the pad while the peripheral portion, i.e., the portion ofthe wafer which extends from the edge of the wafer inward a distance ofup to 10% of the wafer's radius, does not contact the pads or arms. Bysupporting the wafers at their inner portion, this design not onlyreduces the stress on the wafer caused by its own weight but alsodecreases heat stress caused by direct heat transfer to the wafer fromthe slits in the vertical supports.

Although the above-discussed patent proposes the use of long supportarms or teeth in order to decrease stress on the wafer, the wafersupport is far from uniform as it relies on small contact pads locatedat or near the end of the support arms, which pads occupy only a smallportion of the length of the support arm and contact only a small areaof each wafer. Moreover, the design shown in the patent results inreduced tooth strength caused by the removal of material from the top ofthe tooth to form the small support pads or projections.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the invention, it has now been found that moreuniform support for large semiconductor wafers can be achieved invertical wafer carriers by using long teeth or support arms containing araised support structure that typically extends along each tooth adistance greater than about 50%, preferably greater than about 70%, ofthe tooth's length in such a manner as to provide support for each waferfrom a point located inward from the edge of the wafer a distance equalto less than 9% of the wafer's radius to a point located from the centerof the wafer a distance equal to between about 25% and about 80% of thewafer's radius. Such teeth and their associated support structures canprovide essentially continuous support from the wafer periphery inwardand effectively reduce stress induced by the wafer's own weight.Moreover, by utilizing a support structure integral with each tooth thatextends from the front tip of a tooth to near its back end, the strengthof each individual tooth is increased.

Typically, the wafer carriers of the invention effectively supportsemiconductor wafers having diameters between about 195 and 410millimeters utilizing three or more support rails which extendvertically between a top portion and a bottom portion of the carrier.The raised structure which supports the wafers generally runs from thetip of a tooth continuously toward the back and has a surface areabetween about 20 and about 200 square millimeters when supporting wafershaving nominal diameters between 200 and 400 millimeters. Typically, thesupport structure is a ledge which runs along one side of each tooth andcontinuously supports the wafer from the edge of the wafer to a pointlocated from the center of the wafer between about 40% and about 65% ofthe wafer's radius.

The use of a structure that extends over 50% of the length of a tooth tosupport a wafer, as opposed to a support projection or pad as disclosedin U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,229, results in more effective and uniformsupport for the wafer and thereby more effectively decreases the stresson the wafer caused by its own weight. In addition, such a supportstructure, when integral with each tooth, provides increased strength tothe teeth of the carrier.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 in the drawings is a partial perspective view of a preferredembodiment of a semiconductor wafer carrier of the invention with thetop portion cut away so that it can be seen how a hypothetical waferwould be held in the carrier;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of each side of one of the vertical supportmembers or rails shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top view of the portion of the wafer carrier shown in FIG.1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of each side of a vertical support memberor rail just prior to the support ledges being formed at the side ofeach tooth;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of each side of a vertical support memberor rail just prior to a series of interrupted or spaced pads beingformed at the side of each tooth; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of each side of a silicon carbide verticalsupport member or rail after a series of interrupted or spaced pads havebeen formed at the side of each tooth.

All identical reference numerals in the figures of the drawings refer tothe same or similar elements or features.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIGS. 1 and 3 in the drawings show a preferred embodiment of asemiconductor wafer carrier 11 of the invention. The carrier comprises abottom portion or plate 10 on which are mounted four vertical supportsor rails 12 and 14 which extend upward between the bottom plate and atop portion or plate not shown in the figures. The two rails 12 locatedon the left side of the carrier, i.e., to the left of the centerline 20of plate 10, are identical and are mirror images of the two rails 14located on the right side of the carrier, i.e., to the right ofcenterline 20. The two rails 14 are identical with each other and aremirror images of rails 12. Perspective views illustrating the details ofeach side of a rail 14 is shown in FIG. 2. Generally, the design of thebottom plate 10 and top plate is dependent on the type of apparatus usedto move the carrier in and out of the furnace where the wafers are to beheat treated and the design of the furnace itself.

For purposes of illustrating and explaining the invention, a wafer 16 isshown in FIG. 1 as a dotted line in its appropriate position after beinginserted into the wafer carrier 11. Generally, the design of the wafercarrier depends upon the size of the wafers to be held and supported.Typically, the nominal diameter of the wafers held in the carrier rangesfrom about 200 to about 400 millimeters, although other diameter waferscan be accommodated if desired. Such wafers usually have a thicknesswhich ranges from about 0.5 to about 1.5 millimeters.

Each support rail 12 and 14 contains a plurality of support arms orteeth 24 and 26, respectively, which in turn define slots 28 into whichthe semiconductor wafers are inserted. The slots are aligned so that asingle wafer can be jointly received by a corresponding slot in eachrail, thereby allowing the carrier to hold wafers in a stack. Each tooth24 and 26 contains a ledge 30 which runs along a side of the tooth fromits front tip 32 toward its back edge 34. The ledge serves to support awafer, normally from the edge of the wafer inward toward a centerline 18or 20 of the wafer as illustrated in FIG. 3.

The long support teeth 24 and 26 are created in rails 12 and 14,respectively, by machining slots 28 into the rails. Although the railsshown in FIGS. 1-3 are plate-like members in an L-shape, the rails canhave other shapes. For example, they may have U-shaped or C-shaped crosssections. The actual length of the rails is dependent upon the height ofthe furnace in which the semiconductor wafers are to be treated.Typically, the rails will vary in length between about 0.5 and 1.5meters, but are usually somewhere between about 0.6 and about 1.0 meterin length.

Although FIGS. 1 and 3 show that there are four support rails in thewafer carrier of the invention, it will be understood that carrierscontaining two or three rails are within the scope of the invention.Although three or four support rails are normally optimum from a pointof view of support and cost of fabrication of the wafer carrier, morerails may be used if desired.

As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 3, rails 12 are attached to and locatedon the left side (to the left of centerline 20) of bottom plate 10,whereas rails 14 are located on the right side (to the right ofcenterline 20). Ideally, for the most uniform support of wafers, thefour rails should be equally spaced, i.e., 90°, from each other in acircle on the bottom plate. Unfortunately, such an arrangement does notpermit placement of the wafers into the carrier. In order for there tobe sufficient clearance to load the wafers into the front of the wafercarrier, each rail 12 and 14 located in front of centerline 18 of plate10 normally must be spaced between about 150° and about 175° from eachother when measured the short way around bottom plate 10. When it isdesired to utilize only three rails for support, two of the rails arelocated toward the front of the wafer carrier as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3while one rail is located at the back of the carrier, normally on thecenterline 20 of the bottom plate. Typically, the front rails supportbetween about 55 percent and about 90 percent of the weight of eachwafer.

The number of slots 28 in each rail 12 and 14 depends upon the number ofsemiconductor wafers to be held by the wafer carrier. This, in turn,depends upon the size of the furnace to be used for heat treatment andthe separation desired between wafers to adequately expose both the topand bottom surfaces of the wafers to the heat treatment. Normally, eachrail contains between about 50 and 240 slots. For a typical larger sizefurnace, the number of slots normally ranges between about 80 and about150.

The teeth 24 and 26 of rails 12 and 14, respectively, are formed whenthe slots are cut into the rails. The shape of the teeth typicallydepends upon the shape of the plate-like member from which the rails arefabricated. Although the teeth 24 and 26 as shown in FIGS. 1 through 3are wedge-shaped, i.e., they taper outwardly from their front tip 32toward their back end 34, the teeth can also be in the shape of a longrectangle or curved as is an arc of a circle. Generally, when the teethare straight, they range in length between about 20% to about 80% of thesemiconductor wafer's radius, preferably between 40% and 60%. Normally,the teeth are between about 20 and 150 millimeters long, preferably 50to 100 millimeters.

Each tooth on a rail contains a support structure or ledge 30 which runsusually continuously along one side of the tooth from the front tip ofthe tooth 32 toward the back end of the tooth 34 a distance equal to atleast 70%, usually at least 80%, of the length of the tooth. The ledgeprovides support for the semiconductor wafer which is received in theslot between two teeth. The support structure or ledge is designed toprovide support for the wafer usually from the edge of the wafer inwardto a point located from the center of the wafer a distance equal tobetween about 25% and about 80%, preferably between about 45% and 60%,of the wafer's radius. Although it is preferred that the ledge supportthe wafer beginning at its edge inward, the actual support may begin asfar as 9% of the wafer's radius from the edge of the wafer, morepreferably less than 5% of the wafer's radius from the edge of thewafer.

Although support structure or ledge 30 is normally designed to providecontinuous support to a wafer from its edge inward, it is preferablethat the contact area with the underside of the wafer be as small aspossible in order to expose the maximum amount of wafer surface area tothe heat treating process and to reduce heat transfer by thermalconductivity to the bottom of the wafer, which heat transfer will causenonuniform expansion and stress on the wafer. Of course, the actualsurface area of the top of the support structure 30 will depend upon thesize of the tooth, which in turn depends upon the size of the wafer tobe supported. Typically, for a wafer having a nominal diameter betweenabout 200 and 400 millimeters, the surface area of the top of thesupport structure will range between about 20 and 200 squaremillimeters, preferably between about 30 and 120 square millimeters.

The height of the support structure 30 is normally sufficient to allowgases in the furnace to access the area between the top surface of teeth24 and 26, represented respectively by reference numerals 36 and 38 inFIG. 3, and the underside of each wafer. Typically, the height rangesbetween about 0.25 and about 2.5 millimeters, preferably between 0.5 and1.25 millimeters. The distance between the top of the support structureor ledge and the bottom surface of the next higher adjacent toothusually ranges between about 0.75 and about 4.0 millimeters, preferablybetween about 1.5 and 3.0 millimeters.

Although the support structure 30 shown in FIGS. 1 through 3 is in theshape of a ledge running along a side of each tooth from its tip 32substantially continuously toward its back edge 34, it will beunderstood that the wafer carrier of the invention is not limited tohaving support structures in this shape or location. For example, thesupport structure may be a ledge that runs down the center of the tooth,a narrow lip along the edges of the tooth, a line-like contact along thecenter of the tooth, a series of short, interrupted pads running alongthe edges of the tooth or down the middle of the tooth, or some othermeans for support. Regardless of the shape the support structure takesor its location, it is important that it provide support for theunderside of a semiconductor wafer from a point located within adistance equal to 9% of the wafer's radius from the edge of the waferinward to a point located from the center of the wafer a distancebetween 25% and 80% of the wafer's radius. Although it is preferred thatthe support be structurally continuous as is the support ledge shown inthe figures, a discontinuous support structure, such as series of pads,will suffice if it provides support over the specified distance andoccupies more than about 50% of the length of a tooth.

It has been found that, when the support structure supplies support toeach wafer beginning at a point near the edge of the wafer andcontinuing inward, stress caused by the wafer's weight is substantiallyreduced as compared to when support is supplied only at the innerportion of the wafer. Moreover, utilizing a support structure which isintegral with and occupies at least 50% of the length of each toothincreases the strength of each individual tooth.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, wafer carrier 11 of the invention is comprisedof bottom plate 10, rails 12 and 14, and a top plate not shown. Usually,the top and bottom plates and the rails are all made of the same highstrength and high purity ceramic material, which is normallysubstantially resistant to chemical corrosion and has a high heatresistance. Examples of such ceramic materials include quartz, carbon,graphite, monocrystal silicon, polycrystal silicon, silicon carbide, andsilicon carbide impregnated with silicon.

As mentioned previously, the teeth of the rails are usually formed bymachining slots 28 into the rails. Thus, the teeth and the rails form amonolithic or uni-body structure in which the teeth and rails areintegral with each other. Although it is possible that the raisedsupport structures could be added to the teeth after they are cut fromthe rails, it is preferred that the support structures also be cut fromthe rails with the teeth so that they form a monolithic structure withthe rails and teeth. Thus, in fabricating the wafer carrier of theinvention, slots are machined into the rails to form the teeth with theappropriate support structures integral therewith, and the rails arethen attached to the bottom and top plates.

When a relatively soft ceramic material, such as graphite, is used tofabricate the wafer carrier of the invention, conventional precisioncutting machines may be used to cut the slots in the rails. It ispreferred, however, that the wafer carrier be made of silicon carbide,which is a very strong and hard ceramic material that more easilywithstands the harsh environment of the heat treatment furnaces in whichthe semiconductor wafers are processed. Unfortunately, it is verydifficult to machine teeth and their associated support structures ofdesired dimensions into rails made of silicon carbide with the accuracyrequired by the semiconductor manufacturers that use wafer carriers. Ithas now been found that, in fabricating wafer carriers of the inventionmade of silicon carbide, it is much easier to first machine the teethinto rails made of the softer graphite, convert the graphite to siliconcarbide, and then carry out any final cutting or grinding needed toproduce teeth and support structures to exact specifications.

The first step in fabricating a silicon carbide wafer carrier of theinvention is to cut a plate of graphite, preferably one having across-section in a L-shaped wedge as shown in FIG. 3, from a block ofgraphite. Graphite is then removed from the plate, normally using anendmill, to form a first series of parallel grooves or slots 28 butleaving a “back” wall 40 intact as shown in FIG. 4 for a rail 14 to beused on the right side of the carrier. Normally, the slots are cut intothe plate to a depth such that back wall 40 is not penetrated and isbetween about ¼ and about 6 millimeters, preferably between ½ and 3millimeters, thick. Rails 12 to be used on the left side of the wafercarrier are then fabricated out of graphite in the same manner. Thesepartially fabricated graphite rails and the graphite bottom and topplates, which are also cut from graphite blocks in the desired design,are then converted into silicon carbide by heating them to hightemperatures in a furnace in the presence of silica and carbon. At theelevated temperatures in the furnace, the silica reacts with carbon toform silicon monoxide which then reacts with the carbon in the graphiteto form silicon carbide. This method of converting graphite into siliconcarbide is described in more detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,013,700 and3,634,116, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by referencein their entireties.

Once the rails and top and bottom plates have been converted to siliconcarbide, slots of a width smaller than those cut in the graphite areground into the “back” wall 40 remaining on rails 14 and 12. Typically,these slots are ground into the wall with conventional silicon carbidegrinding equipment, such as computer numeric controlled grindersequipped with diamond wheels, between the bottom surface of one tooth 26and the top surface of the next adjacent tooth, thereby forming supportledges 30 as shown in FIG. 2. Although FIG. 2 does not show ledgessimilar to ledge 30 on the bottom of each tooth, such ledges will veryoften be present due to the manufacturing technique used to make thesilicon carbide rails. Once the slots are cut to form the ledges, thewafer carrier is assembled by connecting the rails to the bottom and topplates normally using graphite cement. The assembled wafer carrier isthen subjected to the silicon carbide conversion process described abovein order to convert the graphite cement into silicon carbide, thusforming the silicon carbide wafer carrier.

In the above-described embodiment of the invention, the fabricatedsilicon carbide rails comprise teeth that have a support structure inthe form of a continuous ledge running along one side of each tooth. Inan alternative embodiment of the invention, the support structure is aseries of short interrupted pads that run along one side of each tooth.Such rails are fabricated in a somewhat similar manner as describedabove for making rails having continuous ledges but differ in that theback wall 40 of the graphite plate is penetrated in such a manner as toform a series of parallel interrupted slots 42 as shown in FIG. 5. Theseslots connect with the slots 28 cut into the plate from its front side.The interrupted slots, which normally have a width equal to that of theparallel slots 28, can be cut into the back wall of the graphite plateeither before, after or at the same time that the parallel slots 28 arecut into the front side of the graphite plate.

Once the interrupted slots 42 have been cut into the back side wall 40of the graphite plate, the plate is converted to silicon carbide asdescribed above. The interrupted pads 44 shown in FIG. 6, which figuredepicts a finished silicon carbide rail 14 of the invention, are thenformed by using conventional silicon carbide grinding equipment toconnect horizontally adjacent slots 42 shown in FIG. 5 with each otheron the back side wall 40. This is accomplished by grinding a series ofgrooves or slots of a width smaller than that of slots 28 into the backside wall 40 of the silicon carbide plate between the bottom surface ofone tooth 26 and the top surface of the next adjacent tooth, therebyforming the series of interrupted pads 44 on each tooth. Although FIG. 6does not show interrupted pads similar to the pads 44 on the bottom ofeach tooth, such pads will very often be present due to themanufacturing technique used to make the silicon carbide rails. Oncethese silicon carbide rails are fabricated, they are assembled to form awafer carrier of the invention as described previously.

The length of the support pads 44 shown in FIG. 6 is determined by thedistance between horizontally adjacent slots 42. Usually, this distanceis set so the pads have a length between about 2 and about 30millimeters, preferably between about 3 and about 12 millimeters.

The method of the invention as described above has several advantageswhen used to manufacture silicon carbide rails or supports for use invertical carriers designed to hold large wafers. First, by machining themajor portion of the slots which form the rail teeth in softer graphite,the amount of silicon carbide that has to be machined is greatlyreduced. This results in less incidences of tooth and rail breakage anda lower manufacturing scrap rate. Second, since smaller amounts ofsilicon carbide need to be machined, the support structures can be moreprecisely ground to meet required final tolerances.

Although this invention has been described by reference to severalembodiments of the invention, it is evident that many alterations,modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in theart in light of the foregoing description. Accordingly, it is intendedto embrace within the invention all such alternatives, modifications andvariations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:
 1. A method for making a silicon carbide rail containing teethfor use as a support in an apparatus for holding a plurality ofsemiconductor wafers, which method comprises: (a) forming a first seriesof parallel slots into a solid plate of graphite having a front side anda back side, wherein each of said slots extends from said front sidetoward said back side, thereby forming a back side wall; (b) convertingsaid graphite plate into silicon carbide to form a slotted siliconcarbide plate having a back side wall; and (c) forming in said back sidewall of said slotted silicon carbide plate a second series of parallelslots, wherein each slot in said second series of slots has a width lessthan the width of its corresponding slot in said first series ofparallel slots and connects with its corresponding slot in said firstseries to form said teeth with a ledge running along their top surfaces.2. The method as defined by claim 1 wherein said second series of slotsare ground into the back side wall of said silicon carbide plate.
 3. Themethod as defined by claim 1 wherein said slots in said first seriesextend from said front side of said graphite plate toward said back sideof said graphite plate a distance such that said back side wall of saidgraphite plate is between about ¼ and about 6 millimeters thick.
 4. Themethod as defined by claim 1 wherein none of the slots in said firstseries of parallel slots penetrate said back side wall of said graphiteplate.
 5. The method as defined by claim 1 wherein said slots in saidfirst series extend from said front side of said graphite plate towardsaid back side of said graphite plate a distance such that said backside wall of said graphite plate is between about ½ and about 3millimeters thick.
 6. The method as defined by claim 1 wherein saidledge is between about 0.25 and about 2.5 millimeters in height.
 7. Themethod as defined by claim 1 wherein the surface area of the top of saidledge is between about 20 and about 200 square meters.
 8. The method asdefined by claim 1 wherein the surface area of the top of said ledge isbetween about 30 and about 120 square meters.